Nurses at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center win right to union election

Nurses at a Torrance hospital received word Thursday that the National Labor Relations Board has approved their bid to seek union representation.

The approximately 725 nurses at Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance will now have the opportunity to vote on whether or not to unionize in an election that under federal law must be held within 42 days, said David Monkawa, assistant organizing director with the California Nurses Association.

Nurses at the hospital submitted the required number of signed union cards Wednesday to trigger the election.

"We have a lot of support from other nurses in the area," Monkawa said. "They're watching this with great interest because this will make the entire region a lot stronger in terms of being able to leverage the hospitals for better patient care provisions as well as economics."

Other South Bay and Harbor Area hospitals where nurses have union representation are Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance and Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in San Pedro. Torrance Memorial Medical Center is nonunionized.

About 60 percent of acute care hospitals with more than 200 beds in the state are unionized, Monkawa said. Seventeen of the 30 hospitals Providence operates are unionized, while the company is also in the process of purchasing another that is unionized in Santa Monica.

A round of layoffs at Little Company just before Thanksgiving last year prompted nurses to unionize, said James Eddy, 40, a nurse in the post-surgical unit who is one of the organizers of the effort.

Monkawa noted the hospital's opposition to the nurses' efforts to organize resulted in five allegations of unfair labor practices lodged with the NLRB.

Nurses learned Thursday that one of those allegations has merit and is expected to result in a formal NLRB charge next month, he said.

Monkawa said the charge stemmed from a May 30 incident when hospital security guards ordered off-duty nurses meeting with union organizers in a parking lot to leave the grounds of the medical center. That is a violation of federal labor law, he said, adding that "hospitals fight very hard to stop unions."

A statement by hospital officials Thursday decried the unionization effort.

"Providence is guided by our core value of respect and will support our employees' decision whether or not to be represented by a union," it read in part. "However, Providence believes we do not need to work through a third party. Direct communication and collaboration with our employees have proven so successful we have earned national recognition for quality and safety."

Eddy, however, said the hospital began meeting more employee demands only after unionization efforts began.

For instance, after announcing in March that employees would not receive their annual raise the following month, that stance was reversed in June and workers received a pay increase.

Union organizers said the company's efforts to save money through layoffs don't jibe with the fact its Torrance facility alone generated more than $40 million in net profit in the three years ending in 2011, the most recent year IRS documents are available.

Eddy noted that not all nurses at the hospital want union representation.

"A lot of people are afraid of change," he said. "It's understandable. But we need to change. We need to evolve."